As of today, you get the story of a hamburger that came from a laboratory.

“Some people think this is science fiction.”

It turns out that the bio-engineered beef experiment everyone’s buzzing about is being bankrolled by Google co-founder Sergey Brin who has been a crusader against the inhumane treatment of animals.

Since trying to convert the world to a vegetarian diet would be a pretty tough sell, he figured, suppose we make meat without animals.

So Monday in London, a nutritionist and a food writer sampled the first two hamburger patties made of real meat, grown in a lab from the stem cells of a cow.

“It’s close to meat. It’s not that juicy,” said Chef Richard McGeown.

“The mouth feel has a feel like meat, the absence, I feel like, is the fat,” said Hanni Ruetzler, a food researcher from the Future Food Studio.

Of course you can always grow the fat cells later.

On the official video of the project, Dr. Mark Post, the researcher who pulled this off, says in about 20 years – the process will put the animal farms out of business. Because in the supermarket you’d see old-style beef, “now has this label on it – that animals have suffered or have been killed for this product and it’s exactly the same as an alternative product that is being made in a lab and has the same price or is even cheaper,” explained Post.
“So what are you going to choose?”

Hmmm. I don’t know. I’m not sure you can sell hamburgers with sitar music playing in the background.

But if we turn on some Copeland – there you go. “Laboratory-grown Stem Cells. They’re what’s for dinner.” That sounds a little more manly.